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Is that a running change or place holder for 13spd mnt cassette??
That's normal for XD and XDr. Hope does the same thing. been like that for a few years. XDr 12 speed uses 11-speed spacing between gears so it needed a bit more room - just shy of 2mm as it would happen. I am assuming 13 speed comes about by SRAM using a narrower-than-11-speed spacing on the XDr driver. Certainly, it's possible that if/when SRAM releases mountain 13, they need to go on XDr to get every little bit of room they can.
If their NEw rift zone & alpine trail are anything to go by... the new Quake will be awesome.
The new marin trail/enduro bikes are good... like really good.
Got to demo the alpine trail and returned to the store & bought it.
Reminds me alot of the merida Onesixty but more sensible
Thanks - must’ve been my signal. Picture added.
Good looking out, XR checks all the boxes - frame storage, tons of flip chips+headseat adjustment, mullet/29 compatible, but full build leaves some componentry lackluster... Calling around trying to find a frame!
Curious what y'all know about the new Specialized tires with tire dampening technology. Is that like a mud conditions tire for wet terrain? Or is it a dry tire, but it dampens the dirt so it becomes wet and tacky?
Sounds moist.
If it's the latter I'm gonna buy a ton of them, I'm ready for a change from blown-out moon-dust ruts...
A tire with dampening technology would be dope for the rider following you, they would always have tacky hero dirt.
The marin DH bike looks like everything l want in a DH bike but I am a little bummed with the price. Maybe I'm just being a negative cunt, but I feel like an aluminum 4 bar DH bike from a budget company should cost less than 5k.
I'm thinking they are looking for the dampened feel of cushcore on fast chatter, without having to run a cushcore..... Just a guess
it's 4699.....USD
also has ultimate coil With mavens & hs2 rotors....
Damn good deal imo.
Really good deal. I dont think it could get much cheaper without compromising somewhere on parts spec.
Ah. Semi recently I was looking at scientific papers about damping and almost all of them said dampening. More recently I somewhere saw that what the US English says is damping is actually dampening in UK English...
https://www.google.com/search?q=define+dampening+&oe=utf-8
So you can wet the soil and prevent unwanted oscilations of the tyre at the same time!
As a person who took far too long to begin acting like an adult, shedding my pedantry has been huge. We use words to communicate ideas and if you get what a person is saying, that’s enough. I used to be such an asshole when it came to spelling and word choice. Waste of time, energy, and possibility.
And sometimes the word’ll change meanings on you, like it looks like may be happening here. That’s what did it for me*.
Let go, let dampen.
*it was the word “enormity” for me. Somewhere along the line I’d learned that the word had nothing to do with how big something was, it was about being very bad. Horrible. Not enormous. Usage changed though and now it does, indeed, also mean enormous. I found myself interjecting like a finger-waggling prick every time I saw it used as “big.” When I fucking KNEW the person was using it to mean “big.” Ugh. I have learned how obnoxious that practice is and try to shut the fuck up now. I did chuckled at the “dampen” T-shirt but dude it would be a relapse for me…
I really don’t see the point of that bike over a Patrol/Spire with a dual crown fork and cascade link.
It’s only 180mm so it’s not a real DH bike, but you get none of the conveniences that you would get on a super enduro. Things like water bottle/tool storage, and the option to run a dropper.
See, the difference here is that ten years ago Charlie and company had an entire blog essentially dedicated to being pedantic little shits about bike industry garbage and we all loved them for it. So when he does it now, it's nostalgic.
I get it! And honestly I miss being able to enjoy it without feeling bad. Still gives me a charge when I’m totally 100% right and the dumdums are totally dumb…
Came for the tech rumors, stayed for the Team Robot Felt Decree press release memories.
I'll also argue that there's a meaningful distinction between word use in in casual vs professional settings. If your job is marketing/comms/similar I will absolutely mock you for making errors like that (and I'll be extra-petty about Spesh for personal reasons).
It is always morally acceptable to dunk on Specialized.
Why? Because they consistently make great bikes decade after decade and refuse to sell out? Never got the specialized hate.
Never on solid ground with their dry wit. That said, their tires are my fav despite the spelling challenges, their 27.5 catalog is special.
I definitely dislike them on principal. Their legal team is deplorable. They once threatened to sue a bike shop called “Café Roubaix” because reasons…
I like them for their innovation like making downtube storage a thing and chainstay protectors more than just flat pieces of rubber.
Sinyard did actually publicly apologise for those trademark/copyright sagas. Iirc they did resolve those cases too.
How much knowledge he had of, and during them is a debatably hazy subject though.
I really disliked them for buying Horst link and calling it FSR. Very shrewd business but shitty practice. I avoided them like the plague during that period, but thankfully live in the UK where it wasn’t too much ofban issue.
That said I doubt the split pivot and vpp/maestro/dw-link variants would’ve been so prolific if Horst was public.
Also this, which was apparently Sinyard's decision: https://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/article/industrynews/dutch-company-acquires-north-bays-mikes-bikes/
tl;dr Spesh and Pon both wanted to buy Mike's, Mike's decided to sell to Pon and Sinyard had a hissy and cancelled a ton of bike orders that had been on the books for up to a year (this was during the Covid bike bom).
While that may seem like a pretty school yard/playground reaction its fairly standard business practice.
Examples? AFAIK these were orders from customers that were back-ordered, not regular re-stocks for Mike's.
Standard or not, it's one more reason (in addition to the examples above) that I won't give Spesh my money.
Apologies for continuing the derail, there's a dedicated thread for this here: https://www.vitalmtb.com/forums/hub/brand-loyalty
Here's a rumor: on the latest Geek Warning Dave Rome said he heard "early 2025" for the new XTR release.